The mid-life crisis is real, according to an Australian-led study of thousands of people in three countries. Social economists from the University of Melbourne have found that happiness levels is the lowest in people aged 40 to 42.

“Human happiness hits the lowest point around the ages of 40 to 42,” says Dr Cheng, who worked with colleagues from the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics.

“The jury’s now in. People really do experience mid-life crises.”
The study, which looks at decades of data from tens of thousands of people in Australia, Germany and Britain, has been published by the German-based Institute for the Study of Labour.

“What is interesting is the consistency of the results in all of the three countries we examined. Human happiness hits the lowest point around the ages of 40 to 42”, Dr Cheng said.